The Vale of Aylesbury Plan Steeple Claydon Fact Pack April 2011 St Michaels Church Contents Section Page 1 Introduction page 3 2 Location and Setting page 5 3 Story of Place page 7 4 Fact File page 10 5 Issues Facing the Parish page 36 6 Parish Constraints page 38 7 Annex page 43 Front page photo: St Michaels Church, Steeple Claydon www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1284703 2 1. Introduction Purpose of the document This Fact Pack document was initially produced in 2010 to help inform the town/parish council about the characteristics of their parish for the ‘community view’ consultation. This consultation was undertaken early on in the preparation of the Vale of Aylesbury Plan as part of a bottom up approach embracing localism and aiming to get local communities more involved in the planning process. The town/parish council were asked to consult with their community on the following: The level of future housing and/or employment development up to 2031, including specific types of homes, employment and other development The location, sizes and phasing of development The types of infrastructure (social, community, physical) needed to enable development, including where it should be located Any other issues relating to planning and development This Fact Pack document has also been used to support neighbourhood planning by providing evidence for the context of the neighbourhood plan, including information on housing, employment, infrastructure and the environment. This Fact Pack document has also been used to support the Vale of Aylesbury Plan Settlement Hierarchy Assessment. This forms part of the evidence that classifies settlements into different categories, where different levels of growth are apportioned to over the next 20 years. The document also forms part of the background work relating to Neighbourhood Plans as well as the production of the Vale of Aylesbury Plan. The Fact Pack does not form planning policy for Aylesbury Vale. What the Fact Pack includes The content of the Fact Pack reflects the size of the parish or town, providing the most detail for larger villages/towns which are likely to experience greater levels of growth, compared to smaller parishes/villages which are likely to experience less growth. Smaller parish’s Fact Packs have a more limited content in the Fact Packs. Fact Packs for larger villages/towns identify the following information: Location and setting within the district (relationship to other settlements) Story of place (how the parish has developed from its origins to the present day) Issues facing the parish (e.g. infrastructure and local services deficits) Social demographics (population, age profile, social groups, levels of deprivation and crime levels) Economic profile (allocated employment sites, change of use to employment looking back 5 years, sectors of employment, levels of economic activity, distances travelled to work and broadband speeds) 3 Local service provision (retail, healthcare, leisure, public open space, tourism, and education) Housing profile (dwelling types, tenure, occupancy, past completions and commitments, average house prices, housing needs waiting list and gypsy and traveller sites) Transport infrastructure (road network, cars per household, public transport provision) Environmental constraints (maps to identify agricultural land quality, landscape sensitivities, biodiversity constraints, flooding and historic constraints) Fact Packs for smaller parishes/villages identify the following information: Location and setting within the district (relationship to other settlements) Social demographics (population and age profile) Housing profile (dwelling types, tenure, occupancy, past completions and commitments, average house prices, housing needs waiting list and gypsy and traveller sites) Economic profile (employment change of B use classes looking back 5 years, sectors of employment and levels of economic activity) Issues facing the parish (e.g. infrastructure and local services deficits) Environmental constraints (maps to identify agricultural land quality, landscape sensitivities, biological constraints, flooding and historic constraints) Where possible information in the Fact Pack has been supplemented with information from the town/parish council to draw upon local knowledge, particularly for the section on issues relating to the parish. Some town/parish councils have also published the document on their website for the community to view and use. In addition to this Fact Pack, a district wide Fact Pack has been written to develop an understanding at the strategic level on the availability of infrastructure, services, facilities, planning issues and environmental constraints. This can be viewed on our website1. Availability of data Statistics identified in the Fact Pact are primarily from Census data (2001), AVDC monitoring data (updated annually) and research carried out by Buckinghamshire County Council. There are also a number of websites that have been used to retrieve information, such as crime statistics, broadband coverage and housing sales. Where possible, parish level data has been used. If this level of data is not available super output area (SOA) boundaries or ward boundaries have been used (often these cover a larger area than just the settlement). The boundaries of the parish, SOA and ward can be viewed on map 1 in this document. This Fact Pack is a ‘living document’ which is intended to be regularly updated. Information contained within the Fact Pack is correct at the time of writing. It is acknowledged that some of the information may change over time and the Fact Packs will be updated accordingly. 1 District Fact Pack http://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/local‐development‐plans/planning‐policy/vale‐of‐aylesbury‐ plan‐/fact‐packs/ 4 2. Location and Setting Steeple Claydon sits on‐top of a flat hill, to the north‐west of Aylesbury, located between the A421, A413 and A41. Steeple Claydon is encircled by the villages of Middle Claydon and Calvert to the south, Twyford to the west and Hillesden & Padbury to the north. Buckingham is the closest town around 4 miles to the north, Winslow is around 4.5 miles to the east and Bicester is 7 miles to the west of the village. From Aylesbury, Steeple Claydon is around 9.5 miles to the north‐west. The village has a distinctive church steeple, giving the village its name and has developed over the last 100 years. The settlement is well connected to surrounding routes and A roads and has the disused railway line running east to west, south of the village. East‐West Rail (services Oxford‐Bicester‐Bletchley‐Milton‐Keynes‐Bedford) is due to arrive in the district in 2017 with a new station at Winslow. The Landscape Character Assessment (2008) identifies the landscape as predominately made up of a cohesive agricultural landscape with attractive historic settlements and the ground rising up towards the village of Steeple Claydon and falling away to the south. The bowl to the south of the village is described as visually rich with historic settlements of Middle Claydon and Claydon Park to the south of Steeple Claydon. To the north the ground falls away and the Padbury Brook runs north‐west of the village. The below plan shows the location of the village, and identifies the Parish and ward boundaries and SOAs that cover the village. 5 Location map SOA 7713 SOA 7714 © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. AVDC 100019797 2011 Key Wards Super Output Areas Boundaries Parish Boundary Facts and figures have been identified relating to three different geographical boundaries depending on the source of the information. In general all Census data is provided at parish level, AVDC Local Area Profile data relates to Super Output Area (SOA) and Hometrack Housing Intelligence System data relates to the ward level. Please note the 2011 Census will take two years to publish, as such this data will not be available until 2013. In the case of Steeple Claydon, the parish, ward and SOA form three different boundaries. 6 3. Story of Place Origins of settlement Lying some 12 miles to the north west of Aylesbury, evidence suggests that the earliest settlers and creation of the village began around 660 AD on a site close to St. Michael’s church. The name Claydon is of Anglo Saxon origin meaning ‘clay hill’, with the ‘Steeple’ part of the village name thought to have been added in recognition of the steeple on the church. At the turn of the 20th century, Steeple Claydon’s rural village population had only slowly increased to around 800 people with most people working on the land, railways or in‐house activities such as lace making. The opening of the Brickworks at Calvert in 1900 (which was to become the second largest in the Country) had the effect of increasing employment, with an estimate of 90% of the village male working population employed there. This therefore contributed to the expansion of the village. At this time there were only around 200 "dwellings" in the village, mainly centered on North End, West End and Church End. These were a mix of mainly thatched cottages and late Victorian buildings. The village layout was based around the centuries old road structure of, what is now, Buckingham Road, Chaloners Hill, Vicarage Lane, Addison Road (previously Bull Lane), West Street and North End. Within the village, there remained a good deal of open land with allotments available for villagers. (Source: Steeple Claydon Village Community Website, November 2010). Local travel was by horse/ cart, on foot or by bicycle. The area was criss‐crossed by paths used for many centuries. There were very few motor vehicles; a taxi service was not introduced until the early 1930s. The village Railway station had been opened in 1851 on the Oxford/Cambridge line however if you wished to go further afield, connections locally were available to London/Buckingham (at Verney Junction) and London/Sheffield (at Calvert) on the Great Central Railway. Services and utilities were slow in coming to Steeple Claydon.